Our technical team can help you identify and act on challenges you face in education.

Gibson has deep technical talent in key areas – financial, research and evaluation, data analysis, efficiency, technology, surveys, internal audit, organizational analysis, and academic program reviews, among others. Each member of Gibson’s team makes professional and personal commitments to our education clients to help them solve problems, be more effective, and find better and more efficient ways of doing things.

Meet our team and learn more about us.

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Greg Gibson President

Greg is the founder and President of Gibson Consulting Group and is one of the nation’s leading experts on school district efficiency and management effectiveness. He has over 30 years of experience, and has led over 150 school system efficiency studies for districts ranging from 500 students to over 600,000 students. Greg is the director of the firm’s Management and Organization and Internal Audit Practices, and has directed a wide range of other projects in public education, including information systems selection and implementation, organizational analysis, process re-engineering, data integrity reviews, and program evaluations. Previously, Greg led the Management Consulting Services Practice for the Austin office of Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP) – an international accounting and consulting firm. He is a speaker and trainer on school district efficiency and internal auditing at state conferences and conventions for school administrators and board members.

Ali Taylan Chief Information Officer

Ali has over 15 years’ experience in technology management practices, data visualization, and programming, He leads our Data Visualization Practice Area and is our lead technology consultant on efficiency studies and software selection. He develops and implements business intelligence tools that support educational decisions. These tools allow users, including administrators and board members, to more easily grasp the vast amounts of information through graphics-based presentation and drill-down capabilities. Ali has developed academic (student performance) and administrative (budget analysis and department efficiency) performance measurement systems for school districts, and developed comprehensive, statewide financial and staffing data visualization tool for the Texas Association of School Business Officials.

Ali also conducts technology department performance audits, and helps school districts select application software to support more efficient operations. He also supports virtually every other practice area in the firm, generating data visualizations for survey research results, conducting data analytics to support internal audit, and integrating multiple data sets on efficiency studies.

Joseph Shields Director of Evaluation

Joseph serves as Director of Evaluation, and has over 20 years of experience in research and program evaluation delivering results based on rigorous methodological designs. Joseph is currently involved in a wide array of research studies, including prekindergarten research, assessments of afterschool program quality, and studies of pedagogical change at the higher education level. Recent work has included an impact study of online math and reading program usage in Texas, an evaluation of University of Virginia School Turnaround Specialist Program which was selected as the intervention for the Texas District Turnaround Leadership Initiative, and of a multi-year college completion study for the national AVID Center. He is also leading two studies in New Mexico as part of the Southwest Regional Education Laboratory – The New Mexico Prekindergarten participation study and the Kindergarten Readiness Study.

Previously, Mr. Shields served as Deputy Associate Commissioner for Grants and Evaluation at the Texas Education Agency, where he was responsible for directing statewide evaluation activities and overseeing the administration of approximately $4 billion in annual state and federal grant funds to school districts.

Dr. Amie Rapaport Director of Research

Dr. Amie Rapaport is the Director of Research and has over 10 years of experience guiding research, identifying key objectives, developing methodological designs, creating research instruments and interpreting and communicating results to diverse audiences. She serves as project director for several large-scale, multi-site research and evaluation projects. Dr. Rapaport’s projects span various content areas, including educator professional development, STEM education, teacher appraisal systems, district and charter school partnerships, and measures of student/parent/employee satisfaction and school climate.

Dr. Rapaport earned her doctorate in Social Psychology from New York University, with a concentration in Quantitative Psychology. Her statistical training, combined with her years of experience working with state education agencies and school district staff, enables her to translate technical research language to non-technical audiences, helping to inform educational policy and local decision making.

Marshall Garland Senior Research Scientist

Mr. Garland serves as statistician and lead analyst on multiple projects, and served as the lead quantitative researcher on a variety of research and evaluation projects at Gibson, including statistical work examining student growth models for the Virginia Department of Education, and on a statewide evaluation of a supplemental online instructional platform in Texas. His expertise and research interests are diverse, but his primary interest is in using longitudinal data to address research questions pertaining to student growth and educator effectiveness, and exploring how early educational outcomes influence student success after high school. His graduate training included research methodology and econometrics with a concentration on panel data analysis techniques. He also has advanced training in statistical methods for limited dependent variables form the University of Essex.

Before coming to Gibson, Mr. Garland was a research scientist at the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas, he assembled longitudinal databases spanning 15 years and more than 60 million records using the state’s longitudinal data system. He used these databases to statistically examine questions related to students’ academic growth, teacher effectiveness, and the impact of professional development on student achievement, persistence, and graduation. Mr. Garland also served as a program evaluator at Austin ISD, where he evaluated a number of initiatives, including the federal Title IV Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities grant. His work on understanding the correlates of postsecondary success received recognition by the American Educational Research Association with a Division H “Outstanding Publication for Advances in Methodology” award.

Cheyanne Rolf, PMP Project Manager / Efficiency Consultant

Cheyanne has nine years of experience as an Associate Consultant at Gibson. As a certified Project Management Professional, she serves as project manager on all of our and internal audit and management and organization projects. She has managed client projects ranging in size from 3,000 students to 300,000 students including serving as project manager for the Fairfax County Public Schools and Tucson Unified School District efficiency reviews, and as assistant project manager for the $900,000, 3-month Clark County School District efficiency review.

Cheyanne has experience working on a wide variety of projects, including efficiency reviews, accounting systems, program evaluations, cost savings, and performance measures. She has worked closely with senior consultants on all facets of school district projects, including the creation of performance measures, data analysis (e.g., coding qualitative and quantitative data, as well as financial data analysis), detailed requirements gathering, school-level organizational analysis, staffing analysis, and data-collection activities (e.g., conducting interviews, facilitating focus-group sessions, survey administration, survey reporting, and classroom observations). Before working at Gibson, Ms. Rolf served as a grant manager for Texas school districts.

Beth Frank Operations Manager

Beth is responsible for conducting all business operations within the firm, including accounting, billing, human resources, insurance, office management and contract management. She has been with Gibson for over 10 years, and as part of the leadership team she is involved in every major business decision the firm makes.

STAFF

Eric Booth Senior Research Scientist

Eric has over 10 years of experience in the analysis and evaluation of educational programs and policies, including a focus on analyzing large, longitudinal, and archival educational databases. He is the author of over 20 packages for the statistical package, Stata, that focus on the analysis or management of large-scale data. He possesses graduate-level training focused on advanced statistical methodology, survey design, and educational policy analysis. He received additional statistical and econometrics training at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas.

Eric previously held a dual appointment at Texas A&M University as Senior Research Associate at the Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI) and Lecturer in Graduate Research Methods in the Department of Health Policy and Management. He has regularly taught graduate courses on data management with Stata, research methodology, and complex survey design. His peer reviewed publications include articles at the Journal of Developmental Education, Journal of Applied Research on Children, Party Politics, and Health Services Research. He is co-author of the book, Closing the School Discipline Gap (Teachers College Press). And his educational research has been featured in various media outlets including the New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, and the Austin American-Statesman.

Keri Munkwitz Senior Efficiency Consultant

With over 20 years of public education consulting experience, Keri has worked with both urban and suburban school systems across the country on many different types of engagements. She has managed numerous performance audits and operational reviews. She has conducted organizational analyses, per pupil spending analyses, school-level resource use analyses, process mapping and reengineering, and has worked as part of a Project Management Office (PMO) on a multi-agency ERP implementation. Her work has primarily focused on helping school systems to identify opportunities for reallocating resources in order to better ensure their alignment with district priorities.

Keri holds a Master in Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and earned her undergraduate degree from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. Prior to Gibson, Keri worked for a not-for-profit education consulting firm, focusing exclusively on assisting urban school systems to analyze spending patterns, in order to rethink how they can better organize their resources for improved efficiency and effectiveness. Keri also worked for KPMG Consulting (later BearingPoint) as a manager in their Public Education Practice for many years.

Dr. Jill Carle Research Scientist

Dr. Jill Carle, a research scientist at Gibson, has over five years of research experience, extensive graduate and professional training in research design and econometrics, as well as experience working with large, longitudinal survey data. Dr. Carle has recently worked on a variety of research projects at Gibson, including an evaluation of the 2010 Teacher Incentive Fund Project for the Region 18 Education Service Center in Texas, a study of prekindergarten class size and student-to-teacher ratios for the Texas Education Agency, and a parent involvement survey for the New Hampshire Department of Education.

Prior to joining Gibson, Dr. Carle served as a research associate at the Pew Research Center where she was responsible for analyzing global trends in survey data from more than 45 countries. In this context, she helped develop research questions and survey instruments, built advanced multi-level models, evaluated demographic patterns, and summarized key findings for publication. She holds a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Political Science, with an emphasis in quantitative research methods, and received additional statistical and econometrics training at the University of Michigan.

Brandon Ney Proposal Manager

Brandon is our proposal manager, and in this role is the key resource for new business development at Gibson. Brandon is responsible for researching proposal opportunities, managing the proposal production process, writing proposals, and reporting to the firm on our proposal results. Brandon, a former journalist, also edits consultant and research reports for the firm.

Krista Talley Audit and Efficiency Consultant

Krista is a consultant with Gibson. Through her graduate education and her career in public accounting, she has worked with many school systems. At Gibson, she has worked on various operational reviews and performance audits, helping public school systems improve efficiency, effectiveness, and compliance. Her recent work has included projects for Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida, Killeen Independent School District in Texas, and Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia.

Krista holds a Master of Science in Accounting & Information Systems from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, as well as a Master of Education from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied and researched educational psychology, policy, and career development practices. Prior to joining Gibson, Krista worked at RSM US LLP (formerly McGladrey, LLP), a large international accounting firm, where she conducted a wide range of audit projects.

Danial Hoepfner Research Scientist

Danial has over six years of research experience, including a considerable background in complex quantitative data analysis. His experience includes the gathering, cleaning, and merging of datasets, as well as working with large, pooled cross-sectional datasets. At Gibson, he has recently conducted analytic work for projects, including statewide parent involvement surveys for the New Hampshire Department of Education and for Region 9 Education Service Center in Texas, studies of Pre-Kindergarten Participation and Kindergarten Readiness in New Mexico for the Southwest Regional Education Laboratory, and evaluations of the College Completion Project for AVID Center and of the AVID program for Lee County Schools in North Carolina.

Prior to joining Gibson, Danial worked as a Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, where he regularly presented complex methodological and theoretical material to non-experts. His work there focused on analyzing theoretical structures in survey data. He has also spent time volunteering for an international educational organization. Danial holds a Master of Science from the University of Utah and is working on his dissertation at the University of Pittsburgh to earn his PhD in Political Science with emphases on Methods, Comparative Politics, and International Relations. He has received extensive graduate training in research design and econometrics, including through additional econometric training at the University of Michigan.

Elizabeth Marwah Research Associate

Elizabeth is a research associate and qualitative analyst with Gibson. A practiced interviewer and focus group facilitator, she has over five years of qualitative and mixed-methods research experience. Her specialized graduate and professional training has encompassed qualitative research methods in the context of program planning, implementation research, and program evaluation, including qualitative instrument development, observation methods, focus group facilitation, interview methods, inter-rater reliability, and qualitative data and text analyses. Elizabeth contributes to numerous research and evaluation projects across various content areas in both a project management/coordination as well as a qualitative data collection/analysis capacity. Before coming to Gibson, Elizabeth worked on a five-year, longitudinal school health Randomized Controlled Trial evaluation project at the University of South Florida, where she received a Master of Arts and a Master of Public Health in Applied Anthropology and Public Health Education.

Christine Pham Research Assistant

Christine is a research assistant at Gibson. She supports Gibson’s projects by creating interview protocols and survey instruments, conducting literature searches, and collecting data on-site. She has worked on several research projects, including an evaluation of federally-funded after-school programs, an evaluation of professional development designed to impact classroom instruction, a study of kindergarten readiness in New Mexico, a study of the relationship between student physical fitness and academic and nonacademic outcomes, and an evaluation of new charter schools in Texas.

Christine holds a BA in Psychology from Swarthmore College. Through a series of internships and research assistantships with the University of Pennsylvania, the United States Department of State, Swarthmore College, and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas, Christine has acquired a wealth of experience conducting interviews, coding and analyzing qualitative data, and presenting findings to shareholder groups.

Prior to joining Gibson, Christine also worked directly with students in the classroom as an English teacher and assisted students with issues related to crisis counseling and degree planning at Tarrant County Community College.